Embargo Wrong

May 14, 1985|The Morning Call

To the Editor:

Ronald Reagan has declared a "national emergency" and has declared a boycott of Nicaragua. This boycott is a usurpation of the prerogative of Congress and the Senate to oversee any major steps affecting American security. In addition, this Reagan measure denies Americans the right to free trade on an international scale. The Nicaraguan embargo does not improve our safety or security, because such a measure in response to a nonthreat makes American response to real threats diluted.

We should instead be boycotting the government of South Africa. The U.S. should stop the boycott and cease all military supplies to Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. These military supplies have done nothing but exacerbate the conflictsin the region. The air force of Honduras has already attacked (unreported in your paper) a pair of Nicaraguan coast guard vessels in Nicaraguan waters in an attempt to start a conflict which the American military could intervene in.

Kendall P. Brown

Bethlehem

There have been numerous charges, countercharges and denials by both Nicaragua and Honduras of incursions - Nicaragua's charges mostly involving Honduras-based rebels. Facts on File records in its 1983 edition: "The (Nicaraguan) foreign ministry claimed that Honduran aircraft and patrol boats had attacked two Nicaraguan gunboats in Nicaraguan waters Sept. 8. The ministry said the gunboats had been attempting to detain a Honduran fishing boat between Puerto Cabezas on Nicaragua's Atlantic coast and the border with Honduras."